Thaindian News

London: Leading Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, the brain behind John McCain’s presidential campaign, has disclosed that former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s answers during her TV debate with soon to be US Vice-President Joe Biden were almost rehearsed.

Pitted against the formidable Biden and with time running short, Palin’s preparations for the debate were so poor that the campaign was facing a “crisis” according to Schmidt, and according to him, to avert a complete debacle, Palin was thoroughly tutored.

“These are the questions. Here’s what he’s going to say. Here’s what your most effective response is. That we want to be able to come out of this debate saying you were on offence. If you hear ‘A’, you go ahead and say ‘B’, and so to that degree it was somewhat scripted,” Schmidt told Sky News.

Incidentally, Schmidt himself had recommended Palin to McCain. They later fell out with Palin accusing McCain’s team of being “too controlling” in her book ‘Going Rogue”.

Schmidt refused to respond to Palin’s accusations directly, saying “I don’t have anything more to add to it on a personal level other than to say that there was a good outcome to that debate.”